posted Dec 23rd, 2017 - Italy and Germany have an interesting 4-way history together since 1985. The Italian national teams had the stronger start into the modern era of Formation Skydiving competition and were ahead of Germany throughout the first four world meets (1985 - 1991).

Germany then took over in 1993 and maintained the upper hand at their own four world meets (1993 - 1999). Sinapsi's first lineup of 2001 (Francesco Tegoni, Livio Piccolo, Luca Marchioro, Marco Arrigo, Luca Poretti on camera) turned it back around for Italy and launched the longest period of Italian dominance over Germany at seven world meets (2001 - 2012), and it included the FAI bronze medals that Arianna de Benedetti, Pete Allum, Luca Marchioro, Livio Piccolo and videographer Luca Poretti won with Sinapsi's lineup of 2006.

Sinapsi did not continue after the FAI World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, and eX3MO barely carried the new Italian national team over the finish line ahead of Germany in Dubai 2012. It became the closest battle between both countries in their 4-way history. eX3MO's 2012 lineup (Pete Allum, Mario Fatturoso, Fabio Lorenzetti, Ivan Quadrio, Massimo Fiorini oc camera) won by two points (19.9 - 19.7) over Paratec-Saar (Markus Bastuck, Dieter Schwarz, Joern and Max Thiele, Alexander Hau on camera) in Dubai.

The latest turning point came after the FAI Mondial 2012 in Dubai. Italy's winning streak over Germany came to an end in Prostejov 2014 when both national teams (eX3MO - Paratec-Saar) had new lineups. Airbus defended the new upper hand for Germany successfully at the FAI Mondial 2016 in Ottawa.

4-way history between Italy and Germany since 1985

Belgian Indoor Nationals 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		0,3,18	22,14,N	Q,2,B,E	L,A,F,19	P,4,H,5	9,10,8	6,13,16	K,G,17,C	21,J,1	15,20,12	Total	Avg
1	Amnesya	IT	21	17	26	30	27	21	18	32	20	15	227	22.7
2	Airbus	DE	19	18	26	29	26	18	17	30	19	17	219	21.9
3	ISR FireFlash	BE	20	18	27	23	22	18	17	26	20	16	207	20.7
4	JETMAX	BE	17	16	24	26	17	17	17	16	19	15	184	18.4
5	Ludo's Pinkcakes Deluxe	BE	13	12	22	21	18	15	14	18	16	11	160	16.0
6	Just 4 Fun	DE	12	12	17	19	14	12	11	16	14	11	138	13.8

Markus Bastuck and Joern Thiele were original Paratec-Saar members who had to accept the Sinapsi dominance in 2008 and 2010. Then they came as close as never before to Italy's new national team eX3MO in Dubai 2012 and eventually outscored the Italians in Prostejov 2014.

Paratec-Saar discontinued at the end of the 2014 season, and EADS/Airbus took over the reigns in Germany. It was the new Airbus lineup of 2013 (Olaf Biedermann, Thomas Mack, Goeran Meyer, Christian Schaefer, Andreas Troegele on camera) that defended the German upper hand over Italy successfully in 2016.

Markus Bastuck and Joern Thiele then came back when Airbus had the next personnel change at the end of the 2016 season. Finally, the two longest standing and dominating German team franchises (Paratec-Saar - EADS/Airbus) had merged. Markus Bastuck and Joern Thiele joined forces with Thomas Mack and Goeran Meyer to win the German Nationals 2017 and qualify as the national team for the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

The new Airbus lineup then did something that has been very unusual for German national teams in the past - they competed at an indoor competition, the Belgian Indoor Nationals 2017.

FAI World Meet 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	24	25	35	26	19	22	27	39	23	22	262	26.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	23	31	26	18	22	27	40	23	23	254	25.4
3	France	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8
4	Black Cat	RU	22	20	30	24	17	21	24	33	21	19	231	23.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	21	20	30	24	17	20	23	36	17	18	226	22.6
6	Evolution	CA	20	18	29	24	16	18	23	32	18	16	214	21.4
7	Satori XL	UK	18	19	27	24	16	18	22	30	18	18	210	21.0
8	Airbus	DE	16	18	29	19	15	18	22	29	14	19	199	19.9
9	Savolo	ZA	15	15	25	19	14	15	16	28	17	15	179	17.9
10	Final Fire	AT	16	15	25	17	12	16	18	29	17	13	178	17.8
11	eX3MO	IT	18	15	21	18	13	14	19	25	17	14	174	17.4
12	Rotor Out	AU	16	16	24	14	13	16	18	22	14	13	166	16.6
13	Pangaea	DK	15	16	24	19	11	13	16	25	12	13	164	16.4
14	China	CN	14	15	21	15	12	11	16	24	12	12	152	15.2
15	M4trix	NL	13	13	16	11	11	12	14	20	12	12	134	13.4
16	H4O	IE	13	13	17	8	9	12	9	15	10	10	116	11.6
17	MeXtreme	MX	8	8	13	8	9	9	9	12	8	7	91	9.1

German teams train probably just as much as any other 4-way teams in wind tunnels. However, neither the new German national team Airbus, nor Paratec-Saar or the strongest domestic challenger, AtomiX YUU, have attended indoor meets in the past. There has not yet been a German 4-way team at any of the new FAI indoor world cups and world meets since their introduction in 2014.

There is at least one good reason why the current German national team Airbus missed the FAI indoor meets in 2016 and 2017. Only 14-foot flying chambers have been used so far to host FAI/IPC indoor meets, and the Airbus 4-way lineup is probably one of the tallest in the history of 4-way competition.

The Belgian Indoor Nationals were held in Fly-In's 16-foot flying chamber which allowed probably even Airbus enough space to perform all block maneuvers safely.

Markus Bastuck and Joern Thiele met in Belgium one of the eX3MO members who was in the 2-point battle in Dubai when Italy won the last 4-way outdoor duel between Italy and Germany, Mario Fatturoso. He is the new Amnesya member and won the indoor competition by eight points with his new team. Airbus will either meet Amnesya again in Australia or the reigning Italian 4-way champion eX3MO, and it will be an outdoor competition...

FAI Mondial 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O,8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	2,J,4	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	34	27	22	23	23	32	25	40	26	279	27.9
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	25	34	27	21	23	24	32	27	40	25	278	27.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	26	30	27	21	23	25	29	23	37	24	265	26.5
4	Evolution	CA	22	31	24	17	19	21	28	22	30	22	236	23.6
5	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	29	22	21	21	18	28	20	35	20	233	23.3
6	Satori	UK	18	26	21	17	15	18	23	17	27	18	200	20.0
7	eX3MO	IT	17	24	20	14	17	19	22	18	28	-	179	19.9
8	Paratec-Saar	DE	18	26	21	13	14	16	21	18	30	-	177	19.7
9	Rotor Out	AU	14	25	18	15	17	18	22	17	28	-	174	19.3
10	Bardagi	SE	17	26	20	14	16	15	23	17	24	-	172	19.1